Attorney to discuss suspects’ fate

The defense attorney for a Costa Mesa man and an associate from Mira Loma, whose trial for allegedly shooting and kidnapping a man for ransom ended in a mistrial last month, is slated to meet Monday with a federal judge and prosecutors.

Vagan Adzhemyan, of Costa Mesa, and Galvin Shaun Gibson, of Mira Loma, were tried last month for allegedly taking part in the July abduction of a Russian man in a Los Angeles County parking garage.

The jury was hung, and the judge declared a mistrial, officials from the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Adzhemyan, Gibson and a third man, Suren Garibyan, were accused of kidnapping a man in his apartment complex garage with plans to hold him for $1 million ransom. Garibyan, of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty Dec. 30 and could be sentenced up to 17 years in prison.

Police said the trio shot the man in the stomach, bound and blindfolded him and whisked him away in a van while a friend of the victim ran for cover.

In the following days, the group continually moved their victim, including to Adzhemyan’s home in Costa Mesa, prosecutors alleged.

A break came when the men forced the victim to call family in Russia and demand they pay $1 million for his release, police said.

The family turned over the number that came up on their caller ID to the Los Angeles Police Department. Authorities in L.A. used the phone number and surveillance to find the victim, court documents show.

Days after the kidnapping, the men are accused of raiding a Mira Loma home, where they found the man blindfolded on a mattress and being guarded by a dog and suffering from the gunshot wound. He survived.

Adzhemyan was arrested in a Costa Mesa supermarket parking lot.

Officials declined to say if they would retry the case.